And, something off topic that I'd very much like y'all not to interpret as sexist (it's quite the opposite): I love how many women are in engineering in Romania. 3 out of the 13 on that list, if I'm not mistaken, a ratio which matches my personal experience (my employer in the Netherlands has 100 engineers of which 3 are female).
Somehow, I feel that being nerdy is simply more generally a part of mainstream society in Romania than in most of the rest of the western world. If only the pay wasn't so ridiculously low, I'd gladly move over. In the summer. I think.
It's like that in the former USSR as well. Curiously, there is strong reverse correlation between political correctness and number of women in high-tech.
Curiously, there is strong reverse correlation between political correctness and number of women in high-tech.
I've seen a correlation between "non-Western country" and number of women in tech, but I don't even know how you would measure political correctness to measure a correlation.
It seems to me that the US (regarded as one of the less politically correct western countries) has quite a low level of women in tech, while (based on my limited research) countries that most would regard as more politically correct (eg Scandinavian countries) have similarly low levels.
That contrasts notably to places like India and Eastern Europe, where women in tech levels seem much higher.
I used to work for a company, before I got to build my own product, and we were more like 50-50. I'm not sure if it's like that in every company, but for sure it's not all guys.
Keep in mind that IT in Romania is still a male-dominated world, women developers are around 10% (I don't have any sources on that). But it's not unnatural for women to choose an engineering degree, I think 20%-30% of my year of colleagues were women.
This, i think, comes from our communist past. Back then, jobs were allocated by the state and if you were unlucky, you could have ended up somewhere in the country side. An engineering degree would guarantee a job in a factory in a city. Also add the communist propaganda and Ceausescu's dream to make Romania a heavily industrialized country.
"I love how many women are in engineering in Romania. 3 out of the 13 on that list" - if that's what you based your assumption on, you are quick to jump to conclusion... I'm not saying there aren't many female software engineers in Romania - perhaps there are, it's just that 13 people is too small a sample to say much about that. I have to admit that I'm actually quite curious if anyone could provide some meaningful statistics on the subject (female labor force participation in IT in different countries) - something more than anecdotal evidence
They have some of the best internet in the world (started as literally running cat5 between homes in urban areas IIRC), despite being one of the poorest countries in Europe, which might have some effect on that.
Also, technical + low wages sounds like a great place to hire workers for your startup.
And, something off topic that I'd very much like y'all not to interpret as sexist (it's quite the opposite): I love how many women are in engineering in Romania. 3 out of the 13 on that list, if I'm not mistaken, a ratio which matches my personal experience (my employer in the Netherlands has 100 engineers of which 3 are female).
Somehow, I feel that being nerdy is simply more generally a part of mainstream society in Romania than in most of the rest of the western world. If only the pay wasn't so ridiculously low, I'd gladly move over. In the summer. I think.